Thank you Minneapolis Elections staff and judges

After many months of preparation and a 15+ hour day on Election Day, Minneapolis Elections staff are winding down from managing yet another election. The vast majority of Minneapolis’ election results were tabulated last evening and, as usual, every vote cast will be included in the City’s final election tally.

Due to technical printing errors affecting the margins of the ballots in three precincts of Minneapolis’ 117 precincts, staff are today hand counting ballots in precincts 10-1, 10-2 and 10-8. The printing errors were not noticeable to voters, but caused them to be un-scannable by the standard ballot tabulators. Following State rules and guidelines for scenarios like this, the City and Hennepin County are working together today (Nov. 8) to include these un-scannable votes in the final vote tallies.

Ballots from these three precincts are being hand counted at the Minneapolis elections warehouse, located at 732a Harding St. NE. Again, only a very small percentage of the City's precincts have been affected. Voters should be assured that every ballot will be counted.

Historically, Election Day marks the nation’s largest simultaneous mobilization of a temporary workforce. In Minneapolis, that means staffing 117 precincts to handle Minneapolis’ traditional high voter turnout. Besides the efforts voters see when they visit their polling place, “behind-the-scenes” election preparations included recruiting and training election judges, training 311 operators to answer voters’ questions, updating the elections Web site, ordering supplies, arranging for parking and traffic control, and visiting health care facilities to help nursing home residents vote absentee.